Tour de Cure returns to St. Tammany Parish -- and other Signs of Recovery

-- Tour de Cure, which relocated to St. Francisville after the storm, is returning to St. Tammany Parish Sunday. The bike ride, which benefits diabetes research, will begin and end at the Tammany Trace Trailhead on Koop Drive.

-- Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp. has completed its model home and is ready to build more on 110 lots that were sold to the Road Home program as well as privately held lots. "We didn't come here to just build one home or two,'' said "Treme" star Wendell Pierce, who founded the nonprofit entity. "We want to do 500 or more.''

-- Bridge House will officially open its $9.8 million men's residential treatment facility on Earhart Boulevard today. Demand for substance abuse treatment services increased after the storm, the director said. The new facility will be able to help 239 outpatients per day, in addition to those served at Bridge House's other facilities.

-- New Orleans completed the final phase of work on Robert E. Lee Boulevard, a stretch from Paris Avenue to Pratt Drive that was reconstructed for $2.5 million, 80 percent of which was provided by the federal government.

-- The Miramon Center, a transitional men's shelter in Slidell's Olde Towne, officially opened last week. The shelter can house as many as eight men for 90 to 120 days, but it also has separate dormitory space for as many as 90 volunteer workers who come to help in the recovery.

-- The New Orleans Faith Health Alliance officially opened its clinic at First Grace United Methodist Church on Canal Street. The clinic, made possible with the support of Catholic Charities and Baptist Community Ministries, was launched in response to the need for health care and the influx of uninsured workers.

-- Blueberry farms are producing bumper crops this spring. "This is the best year since Katrina,'' said Amy Phelps of Pearl River Blues in Lumberton, Miss. "It's our first complete field in five years.''